2011. We're back.

Welcome back.

A few people have asked if the blog would return, and while I would not say it's back by popular demand, a few requests/inquiries is all it takes for me to get sucked back in.

I finished my seventh(!) year of teaching in May. Summers off are an amazing benefit of the teaching gig, and I try not to take them for granted. People have stopped asking me if I'll be teaching summer school. Ha! Most of all, what summer allows is what I affectionately call, "The luxury of inefficiency." There are many things that I need to get done before mid-August. The list builds throughout the school year, and this is the time to take care of the list. But I can address those things at a pace that brings very little stress, and as much as I enjoy my job, having a couple of low-stress months is really sweet.

As I considered the blog this spring, I thought about the fact that I moved to Austin 20 years ago. I think this will be a common theme to my writing this year. Some of what I write will be memoir-like, looking back to record some of the events, even if the details are getting a bit fuzzy.

I love Austin, and I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I'd settled anywhere else. When a city doubles in population every 20-25 years, major changes are inevitable. One thing that has not changed since I moved here is the full-contact nature of city council elections. People may decry the low voter turnout, but there is no denying the passion and energy involved in city elections around here.

On Saturday, a run-off between faux-liberal Randi Shade and true-liberal Kathie Tovo will be decided. When Tovo nearly unseated the incumbent Shade in the general election without a run-off, I was surprised by Shade's weak performance. When I first moved to Austin, local elections were boiled down to "development/growth" vs "environment/quality of life/Barton Springs" battles. Even though the environmental/neighborhood voting bloc has generally controlled the city council, growth in a city like Austin cannot be stopped. "Smart Growth" became the pragmatic slogan, and center-left realism has ruled the day.

The battle lines of the Shade/Tovo race are a throwback to the early/mid 1990s in Austin politics. Back then, I was still learning about the electoral dynamics in the city. I voted for the environment candidates and hoped for the best. This year, I've got time to get more involved in such a race. On Memorial Day, I called the Kathie Tovo campaign to say that I wanted to volunteer. Guess who answered the phone? Yep, Kathie Tovo. Probably a million dollars will be spent on this race, and yet, there is small town feel to how leaders are elected in this city of more than 800,000. The candidate herself was answering the phone. Sign me up.

My critical role as a volunteer for the campaign has been to bug people with phone calls. The volunteer coordinator is ready for anyone that walks in off the street. I'd had a follow-up phone call, so they knew I was coming. When I made that call, the woman who answered the phone said to Chris, the volunteer coordinator, "We've got a live one." Other volunteers were occupying all the other rooms in the pleasantly spartan campaign office, so they put in a room that had a shower and a sink, and room for two small chairs. They not so originally called this "The Shower Room," and promised me that the acoustics would be awesome.

I had a script, and a list of names and phone numbers, which also included information about how often the people I would call had voted in recent elections. Nothing about who they had voted for, but clearly targeting regular voters in strong Tovo precincts. At least half of the calls resulted in messages left for people on their machines. With such a low percentage of people voting, pushing turnout is the key. I know that most people find these calls annoying. I know I find them annoying, but the professional campaign people seem to think it works. 14,000 people voted early in the general election, and 24,000 voted early in this runoff. The campaign people are wondering what those numbers mean, and they are keeping the hammer down, trying to keep the momentum strong until tomorrow's final vote.

I've been in the campaign office three times, and twice Kathie Tovo has been there, doing whatever a candidate does in the last week of a big election. She has been good about thanking volunteers, and taking the time to talk to people who are giving their time to support her run. One odd thing about this race is the public support that the mayor and other council members are giving the two candidates. I knew there were divisions on the council, but most of the members have openly chosen sides, trying to get, or keep, an ally on the council.

I have no idea how this race will finish. My prediction about how the general election would go was far from accurate, but Tovo's strong showing motivated me to get involved in the run-off. Cold-calling people was not fun, but getting to see some of the inner-workings of a campaign, while helping a candidate that I think will be good for Austin was worth it. Especially if she wins.



Remember, comments on the blog are not just welcome, they are mandatory.

Thanks for reading.


Peace,

JS4